Car Bomb Assassinates Lebonese Gibran Tueni

Gibran Tueni was 48 years old when he was elected to the Lebanese parliament recently. He also was the general manager & editor of the newspaper his grandfather started in 1933. An-Nahar newspaper is based in Beirut, and it has a mass circulation daily. He was assassinated Monday, December 13, 2005, along with three other people. They died instantly.

The blast from the car bomb was so strong that many cars were set afire, as well as many shops. The United States was quick to point the finger at Syria. 'His murder is another act of terrorism aimed at trying to subjugate Lebanon to Syrian domination,' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Tueni had been defying Syria for many years. In a dramatic change of diplomacy in early 2000, he wrote an editorial calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. The editorial was said to be the first to explicitly make such a call since 1990 and emboldened other journalists, students, lawyers, human rights activists and others in the war-torn country. He certainly was one of the most influential voices in the Cedar Revolution.

Because he waas an outspoken critic of Syria's role in Lebanon, Tueni had recently been living in France for fear of being assassinated. In August he told French radio a hit list of Lebanese political figures had been unearthed by the UN-appointed investigation into the Hariri assassination. 'My name is on top of this list,' he said at the time.

In June of this year, he became a member of Parliament. Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who is Tueni's uncle, threatened to resign if the cabinet did not meet by Monday evening 'to demand an investigation under the supervision of the Security Council on all the crimes committed by Syria.' This is not the second assassination.

Tueni leaves behind his wife, Siham Asseily, and his four daughters Nayla, Michelle, Gabriella and Nadia.